Jim Al-Khalili, scientist, author, broadcaster and Professor at the University of Surrey, mesmerised and entertained a sell-out audience at the second George Abbot Onslow Lecture series.
A familiar voice from Radio 4’s ‘A Life Scientific’ Professor Al-Khalili gave a brief history of gravity and how our understanding of it has changed: from the Ancient Greeks, who believed everything revolves around the earth, via Newton’s Law of Gravitation, to Einstein’s theories, developed early in the 20th century, which still hold force today.
In a lecture that took us from the very latest scientific research to time travel in Hollywood films, Professor Al-Khalili described black holes, Big Bang theory, spaghettification and much more. We learnt that time passes more slowly the further from the earth you are and that, just conceivably, time travel might be possible.
Thought-provoking questions afterwards confirmed that a fascinated audience had hung on every word. For those still pondering the mysteries of dark energy and worm-holes, Professor Al-Khalili had the answer: two Ladybird books he has written on gravity and quantum mechanics.
Proceeds from the evening will go to the Renaissance Project, a major fund-raising initiative to renovate the school’s art facilities. The school is extremely grateful to Professor Al-Khalili for sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm.